Noise in the Workplace - Electricity Generation and Supply

South of Scotland Electricity Board (SSEB) 1. INTRODUCTION 1.1 The Electricity Supply Industry in Scotland differs from the Industry in England and Wales in that the two Scottish Boards are "all-purpose" or vertically-integrated".In terms of noise this means that in our relatively small Boards we have to cope with the full range of noise problems that other Boards meet separately.1.2 The South of Scotland Electricity Board, soon to be privatised as Scottish Power. is the-larger of the two Scottish Boards.employing about 11,500 staff in:three Nuclear Power Stations, five Fossil-Fuelled Power Stations.two Hydro Groups.one Gas Turbine Installation; and operating abiut 30,000 km of overhead lines.5h.000 km of underground cables and 37.000 sub-stations.About half of the total staff work in Distribution& Supply from Area Offices and Service Centres.5558 also operate a TrainingCentre. a research and Development Centre and Central MaintenanceWorkshop. THE NOISE PROBLEM2.1 Power Stations 1 2.1.1Noise Levels.Until a few years ago it was assumed that noise problems in SSEB were confined.in the main, to power stations where noise reduction in plant items seemed to have been given little prominence at the design stage even in fairly modernplant.This can be demonstrated by comparing the noise levels in the Turbine Hall of Power Station 'A' fully commissioned in 1955 and demolished in 1976 and Power Station '3' a newer Power Station (Table 1).Turbine Halls are generally more noisy than Boiler Houses although noise from individual plant items and high pressure steam/water leaks can create problems, ' V 2.1 2 Exposure.Staff in power stations.for noise exposure considerations can be divided into two main groups vizt those who operate the plant and those who maintain or service it.Maintenance and service staff may be allocated jobs in any part of the power Station and these jobs may take anything from a few hours to a few weeks, Maintenance/service staff may even be transferred.at a moments notice, from longer term work to emergency jobs during the course of the longer term work.